Power Swap
by agrader
Summary: Blue Beetle and the Atom exchange super powers, enabling Beetle to pursue his romantic interest in the Huntress in a more subtle way.


A science class was just beginning at school. The teacher addressed the students.

"It's good to know we don't have any absentees today," said the science teacher, "Let me introduce our guest speaker from Ivy Town: Mr Choi. Mr Choi is here as part of our teachers exchange program. We have a guest lecture from Mr Choi, while a school in his own home town gets a guest lecture from Miss Bertinelli."

Ryan Choi began a complex lecture on atomic particles, which held the students' attention for the duration of the double science period which had been created by rearranging the school timetable for that week only.

When school finished, Ryan found himself walking out to the bus stop with some of the students. Before the bus even arrived, some gunmen held up the bank over the road from the bus stop. Ryan ducked behind a tree, activated his costume and shrank to the size of his other identity: the Atom. He quickly made his way to the bank, only to find that the latest Blue Beetle was already engaged in combat with the robbers.

Adjusting his weight controls, the Atom threw himself at one man's leg, knocking him down. Blue Beetle's battle suit made it easy for him to defeat the others quickly too. They were both super heroes, against a group of non powered men. They secured the criminals for the bank to hold until the police arrived. Then they left together.

"If I had your power, I'd be the SIZE of a beetle!" said Haime in admiration.

"I've kind of lost my enjoyment of shrinking, ever since I fell into Halo's seafood salad at one of Bruce Wayne's parties," said the Atom, "I think an interactive power costume like yours would be a welcome change."

"So how do you shrink?" asked Blue Beetle.

"It's in the costume too," said the Atom, "Specifically the belt."

"Then why don't we just swap outfits?" asked Beetle.

"We'd have to change identities too," said Atom.

"Let's run this problem past Batman," said Beetle, "He always knows what to do."

"Could we make Adam Strange one of our unofficial team mates?" asked Atom.

"No. We need heroes willing to stay close by on Earth," said Beetle, "Adam's a bit of an also-Rann."

Batman soon applied his considerable intelligence to their situation.

"I've teamed up with so many super heroes lately, that my mind is an encyclopaedia of characters and their super powers," said Batman, "I know the one super hero who could help."

Batman contacted Ronald Raymond and had him merge with his star pupil Jason to become Firestorm the Nuclear Man. Haime and Ryan managed to exchange costumes and share their secret identities with each other, having earned the trust required by bonding as they had.

When Firestorm arrived, Batman had him use his powers to make Haime's Atom costume look like his old Blue Beetle outfit, and made Ryan's Beetle costume look like his old Atom outfit.

"One thing," said Batman, "I've only encouraged this enterprise in the hope that your new powers will throw your familiar opponents off guard."

The Atom found that Blue Beetle's former costume was willing to take instructions from Ryan Choi, just as it had done from Haime.

Blue Beetle wondered when he would see the Huntress again, until a new teacher at the school named Miss Eisley caught his notice. Student gossip had informed Haime that Miss Eisley had been seen performing strange experiments on plants after school. What Haime didn't know was that Helena Bertinelli (another teacher, and also the secret identity of the Huntress) had been informed some time ago by Batman, that Pamela Eisley was the real name of Poison Ivy.

Helena changed to the Huntress and went to investigate Miss Eisley's experiments. Pamela Eisley revealed herself as Poison Ivy. A lengthy martial arts fight ensued between the two women. Haime changed to the Blue Beetle's new costume, which had the power of enabling him to shrink. At this point he entered the science classroom at normal size.

"You can't stop me, Huntress," said Ivy, "Once my machine's new process is completed, these plants will-"

Blue Beetle didn't wait for the rest. He shrank to tiny size, went inside Ivy's machine and reversed its wiring, killing the plants forever. Huntress handcuffed Ivy for the police. Beetle seemed to have left. Huntress went out of sight and changed into her regular clothes and returned to preparing her next lesson.

A small object, about one centimetre tall, jumped out of her hair unnoticed, landed softly on the floor beside her seat, walked under the desk and grew to the height of two inches. Blue Beetle had hidden in her hair as soon as he'd left Ivy's machine. Now he had just learned that the Huntress was in fact his own teacher! He wondered how he could get her to notice him.

"Helena thinks Haime's just a student to her," thought Haime, "Huntress isn't interested in Blue Beetle. Since Helena is Huntress, she might not be interested in Blue Beetle either … unless she assumed that a super hero had taken a shine to her as Helena and not as the Huntress."

He grew back to full size and spoke to her.

"Miss it might be best if I made sure you left safely when you've finished your work," said the Blue Beetle, "Huntress and I have just had a nasty encounter with Poison Ivy. She might have left minions on school property to continue what she started."

"Thank you, but I didn't know you had the power to change your size," said Helena, thinking that perhaps this relatively unfamiliar super hero had potential after all, "I'm Helena Bertinelli."

He walked her to her car quite late in the day. Night had already fallen.

"I appreciate the concern," said Helena.

"I don't suppose we could go out for tacos," said Blue Beetle, as he suddenly realised what a poor impression his limited student income would make on an adult teacher.

"How would you eat it it in that costume?" asked Helena.

"I guess I could pull part of the mask away from my lower face," said Blue Beetle, "I guess I'd need to anyway, if we ever … "

"If we ever do, I'll look forward to seeing you face to part of face," said Helena.

"I'm sorry. I just realised I might be putting you in danger by dating you in public."

Helena didn't want to tell him that she could look after herself. She offered to order the takeaway tacos herself and meet Blue Beetle in a secluded part of the park. Soon they were eating together.

"Is tonight too soon for the kiss?" he asked, when they had finished eating and drinking.

"I guess it would be alright," said Helena, who was used to flirting with Batman as the Huntress and getting little in way of a response.

Haime adjusted his mask and leaned across for the kiss. It was very pleasant. It was more than pleasant. Here he was kissing his teacher, and she didn't know it. If he never got another kiss like that, it would have been worth it, he felt at the time.

"Not bad at all," said Helena.

"I hope you'll still think so now," said Haime, and removed his mask.

"I simply wouldn't have believed it!" said Helena.

"I've liked both of you, in each case since I first saw you."

"Both of me!"

"Sure. As Beetle, I had a crush on Huntress. As Haime, I had a crush on Miss Bertinelli. I didn't think I'd get very far unless Beetle approached Helena."

"I guess I have made that hard for you on both counts," said Helena, "But how did you know my identity?"

"I was concealed in your hair, when you changed back to Helena this afternoon."

"It seems that both my civilian identity and your costumed identity prohibit us from being seen together in public. It looks like Huntress will have to date Beetle, while Bertinelli and Haime maintain an aloof distance at school."

"That's better than the potential name ramifications of the alternative," said Haime, "You wouldn't want people calling you Bertinelli Beetle."

Helena tickled him without mercy.

Meanwhile the Justice League of America (Superman, Green Arrow, Batman, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter's replacement Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern) welcomed back Barry Allen as its resident Flash, after the Flash's recent rescue from Professor Zoom's clutches in the future.

Aquaman mentioned to the Flash, that Aqualad and Speedy and Robin had been hanging out together a lot lately. Flash suggested that Kid Flash join them. Robin soon decided to put together a team of teenaged super heroes and the four youngsters became known as the Teen Titans.

Meanwhile, the Justice League's arch enemies (the Joker, Captain Boomerang, Black Manta, Clock King, Solomon Grundy and Polaris) formed the Injustice League of Doom and began plotting a master crime.

Kid Flash invited the other three Teen Titans to go for a ride with him on his cosmic treadmill. It took them to a parallel earth, where Rita Farr, Larry Trainor and Cliff Steele never got over their reactions to their conditions, as Niles Caulder didn't exist. So the three became the Gloom Patrol, calling themselves Metal Menace, Negative Influence and Killer Mouth.

While visiting that earth, the Teen Titans soon responded to the Gloom Patrol's next attack on the city. Negative Influence's 60 Second Man left his body and knocked Kid Flash out at high speed. Metal Menace's body resisted all of Speedy's arrows. Killer Mouth grabbed Robin and Aqualad. She took all the Titans to a giant house that she'd built for herself in the mountains.

Before Kid Flash could revive, Killer Mouth used him like a stick and pushed two marshmallows around his head and body, so that he was too sticky to use his speed.

As soon as he awoke, he took stock of his surroundings. There was a giant marshmallow stuck to his neck and chin. Another had joined his legs together.

"It's time to have a Flash-Kid-Bab," said Killer Mouth, pushed him into her mouth and gulped the whole mixture down.

"I need water or I'll die," said Aqualad, still in shock at the loss of Kid Flash.

Killer Mouth put him into a jug of water and said that she would drink him down with it last, after she had decided what to do with Robin and Speedy. She put Robin into the oven to warm him up, while she took Speedy to the table and put him into her mouth.

Meanwhile Negative Influence and Metal Menace were visited by a trio of heroes from the same world. They were: Bigger Barda (a woman whose real name was Apoka Lips, who also had the power to grow to giant size); Mr Miniature (alias Scott Flea, with the power to shrink) and Off-Or-On (alias Oberon, with the power to suspend motion).

Off-Or-On stopped the 60 Second Man from leaving Negative Influence's body. Mr Miniature shrank to tiny size, went inside Metal Menace's robot body and disconnected vital wires, thus immobilizing the man. While they were at it, Bigger Barda had headed straight for Killer Mouth's house.

Barda arrived and used her normal size to slip under Killer Mouth's door just in time to see Killer Mouth putting Speedy into her mouth.

"Let him out!" said Bigger Barda, growing to giant size. She watched, too late, as Killer Mouth gulped Speedy down her throat.

Barda flew at Killer Mouth, being a taller woman at both their giant and normal sizes. Speedy rolled over in Killer Mouth's throat, as the fight went on. Barda knew that she had to force Killer Mouth into a lying down position if Speedy was ever to make his way out again. The two giantesses wrestled on the floor, rolling around until Barda had pinned down Killer Mouth.

"Open your mouth!" she demanded.

Killer Mouth had no choice but to obey. Deep inside her throat, Speedy heard Barda's voice calling:

"It's Bigger Barda here, young lad! I'll hold her horizontal, while you climb along her throat in this direction and out of her mouth."

Speedy did so. Then Barda let Killer Mouth sit up.

Suddenly her stomach felt strange. From out of the front of it and into her lap vibrated Kid Flash, moving so fast that his body passed between the molecules of her own giant form.

"Once your stomach acids melted most of the marshmallow mess off me, I started running across the acids, just as I've often skimmed across the waters of the ocean with the Flash. Then I just vibrated through the front wall of your stomach," said Kid Flash.

Bigger Barda lifted Aqualad out of the jug of water. He was now revitalized for hours to come.

"Thank goodness that's over," said Aqualad.

"I keep thinking we're forgetting something," said Speedy.

"Where's Robin?" asked Aqualad.

"Oh dear! He's in the oven!" said Speedy.

Barda quickly went to the oven and found Robin sweating with heat. She dropped him into Aqualad's jug for a swim.

"Thanks Barda," said Robin, "Reversing the Bat-thermal underwear to make it cold wouldn't have lasted forever. I was watching you giantesses fight through the oven door's glass window. I think it took longer than Killer Mouth intended for me to be in the oven."

The Teen Titans said farewell to the local world's super heroes. Then Kid Flash vibrated them back to their own earth on the cosmic treadmill.

On their own world, while they'd been away, their own world's Robotman found himself the only one who survived the fatal attack on the Doom Patrol. He learned that Metallo was holding Superman at bay, ranting about his condition. Cliff Steele saved Superman and said, "Corben, you didn't have to act like this. I got through the same thing without turning to crime."

Little did he know that his parallel counterpart named Metal Menace had not.

Elsewhere the Freedom Fighters were on an assignment. They split up into teams. Uncle Sam went with Human Bomb. Black Condor went with the Ray and Plastic Man. Dollman went with Phantom Lady.

When the mission was over, Dollman was once again resting on Phantom Lady's shoulder, when she suddenly coughed, jolting Dollman who fell into her generous visual display. Caught between a soft place and another soft place, Dollman could only call out.

"I'm stuck. I don't want to use my full strength to get loose in case I hurt you. I'm sorry about this, Phantom Lady."

"Don't be! It feels great!" she said, "You'd say so too, if you weren't too embarrassed to admit it."

"Oh … well, yes. I do like it actually," he said.

After a lot of dating, Dollman went to see her again and she let him stand on the palm of her hand. She noticed that he had removed his cape and folded it in his hands, and asked him why.

Dollman unfolded it and took out an engagement ring.

"Will you be my full sized wife?" he asked.

"I've liked you for years," she said, "Why else would I have let you camp on my shoulder so often. I thought you'd never get around to anything without a little encouragement."

"Did you cough deliberately to shake me in that direction?"

"Yes. Why didn't you ever make the first move?"

"I was afraid you'd give me the COLD SHOULDER."

"Not at all, even if I hadn't been interested. The first Atom spent years on Wonder Woman's shoulder too."

Soon Dollman and Phantom Lady were at a wedding ceremony in their costumed identities a few months later.

"Do you, Dollman, take this woman Phantom Lady to have and to hold, as is best possible, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?" asked the Minister.

"I do," said Dollman.

The minister asked a similar question to Phantom Lady and then pronounced them husband and wife and invited Dollman to kiss the bride. Kissing her full sized lips was once again an enjoyable experience for Dollman.

Bat-Mite used his reality warping powers to go back in time and prevent the Riddler's exposing of Batwoman's identity. As a result, Bat-mite and Batwoman went on to team up frequently, fell in love, and soon found themselves double dating with Robin and Batgirl.

One night Speedy was patrolling the city at night, alone. Robin was out dating Batgirl, Aqualad was in Atlantis. Kid Flash had been staring at a packet of marshmallows for weeks.

So Speedy found himself on patrol in response to an anonymous tip that the criminal Huntress had been seen breaking into a bank. (This was not Helena Bertinelli, but an older woman, who had been an opponent of the Justice Society of America). Speedy approached the bank, only to be attacked by a whole team of super villainesses: Huntress, Catwoman, Lashina, Stompa and Aunt Minerva.

Speedy knew he'd never stand up against the super powered Lashina and Stompa without his arrows. He reached for his bow, only to have it snared from his reach by Lashina's whip.

"We'll get him easily now," said Catwoman, "And we'll hold the whole Justice League and Teen Titans to ransom, keeping both teams off our backs.

Suddenly the Black Orchid flew onto the scene and used her super strength to free Speedy and round up all of the villainesses. Extremely grateful, Speedy asked her out on a date. Taken by the cute youthful features of the teenaged super hero, Black Orchid was quick to accept, and Roy Harper became the first male to get close to the mysterious Black Orchid.


End file.
